New law on foreign workers passed in Kuwait

But controversial sponsor system stays

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait—The Kuwaiti parliament passed a new labor law on Wednesday that grants better rights and conditions for the 2.3 million foreign workers but does not scrap the controversial sponsor system.

The new law, approved unanimously by lawmakers including cabinet members, replaces a 45-year-old law that was criticized as being favorable to employers at the expense of workers.

The legislation provides more rights for workers in the private sector, including better annual leave, end of service indemnities and holidays.

It also sets tougher penalties, including jail terms, for businessmen who trade in visas or who recruit expatriate workers and then fail to provide them with jobs, or who fail to pay salaries regularly.

Kuwait is home to 2.3 million foreigners, more than two-thirds of them Asians, including some 140,000 Filipinos (as of December 2007), and 1.1 million citizens.

The bill requires the government to introduce a minimum wage for certain jobs, especially in the lower-paid categories.

During the debate, several MPs criticized the old law as being oppressive to laborers and favorable to employers.

The new law, however, fails to address the much-criticized sponsor system under which all foreign workers must be sponsored by a Kuwaiti employer, thus keeping expatriates at the mercy of their bosses.

Other oil-rich Gulf states apply similar systems.

Nevertheless, the law requires the government to set up a public authority that takes on the responsibility of recruiting workers from abroad.

Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Mohammed al-Afasi has repeatedly said that the emirate was considering a gradual end to the system to meet international labor standards, but little action has been taken so far. - Agence France-Presse/inquirer.net, December 25, 2009